Town braces for wild weekend fundraiser

TALKEETNA -- The annual Winterfest celebration in Talkeetna will kick off in three weeks, starting with a ceremonial tree lighting and one of the town's claims to fame -- the 23rd Annual Bachelor Auction and Ball.

Dating back to 1981, when a group of bachelors were sitting in the Fairview Inn grumbling about the lack of women in town, the auction and ball has drawn hundreds of women to this quirky town at the end of the road to lay down their cash for a drink and a dance.

"The woman that bids on a man and wins him gets a drink and a dance," said organizer Pam Rannals, "anything beyond that is out of our control."

The event is a rollicking good time, with an average of 35 bachelors of all ages and backgrounds up for bid -- the only requirement is that they are not married, and that they pay $10 to join the Bachelor's Society. Rannals said the auction was once open only to Talkeetna residents, but, serving as a fundraiser for the community, they have opened it up to nonresidents as well. Money raised from the event goes in part to the Sunshine Health Center for the benefit of needy women and children, with the rest going to various organizations in the Talkeetna area. In the past, Rannals said, money has been donated to the Sheldon Community Arts Hangar, the local public radio station, books for the elementary school and to the high school.

Organizing the event can be a lot of work, but Rannals said she has been involved since the beginning, when she worked at the Fairview.

"Maybe this will be the last year," Rannals said, then, as if realizing that was out of the question, added, "But you can't let something like that just die."

The help of volunteers has made organizing the event easier, Rannals said.

DX Russell is one such volunteer, who came on board when she moved to Talkeetna permanently in 1996, after living in Anchorage and commuting to a remote Talkeetna-area cabin for 20 years.

"I could see there were pockets I could fill, things that I could help out with," Russell said.

With just three weeks before the event is to take place, both Rannals and Russell said this is the time they get nervous about everything falling into place. Each of the bachelors must turn in a photo and a small biography and participate in a group photograph for the Male Order Catalog that is distributed year-round in Talkeetna.

"Sometimes it's like herding cats," Russell said, laughing. "But they'll come around."

Before the night's festivities, however, the women get a chance to strut their stuff. Not long after the Bachelor's Society came up with the auction idea, Rannals said she came up with the idea of women participating in a contest prior to the Bachelor Auction. The premise was that the bachelors were hoping to find a mate, and the women needed to prove they could handle life in the Bush. Thus was born the Wilderness Woman contest.

The contest is open to single women only. They must haul two 5-gallon buckets of water in a 100-yard dash down slippery Main Street, make a sandwich and serve it to a waiting bachelor, shoot a "ptarmigan" with a bow and arrow, haul firewood, catch a Styrofoam fish and shoot a moose. The winning Wilderness Woman will receive a fur hat, second place receives a gold nugget, and third usually receives a necklace made by one of the bachelors.

There are usually about 20 contestants, with all but five eliminated in the first round -- the water haul.

"After the first event we weed them down to five. We only have so much daylight at that time of the year," Rannals said.

Women from all over Alaska, and many from the Lower 48 and other countries, have competed in the event.

Camille Cusumano of California wrote about her experience as a Wilderness Woman contestant in a 2002 article in the Los Angeles Times. "I joined 21 other hardy women in a test of our wild-woman skills," Cusumano wrote. "But the qualifying 100-yard dash over icy snow, carrying two 35-pound buckets of water, humbled me."

Rannals said the Wilderness Woman course is pretty tame; the women are not required to use a chain saw, for instance, or an ax, and the snowmachine portion is only a short distance.

"If we get some city girl who's never been on a snowmachine it can be kind of scary," she said.

This year, Rannals said, a young Belgium television celebrity will be joining in the competition. The woman will be accompanied by an entourage that will spend a week in Talkeetna, she said.

The Wilderness Woman contest and the Bachelor Auction have been featured in various national magazines, including GQ, Rannals said, and this year a game show network from Los Angeles has been showing an interest.

"It's just kind of a tongue-in-cheek thing, but they like it," Rannals said. "I guess people like the wackiness of it."

Neither of the women who spend so much time organizing the Wilderness Woman contest have ever competed.

"I've done all those things," Russell said. "I'd had a remote cabin for almost 20 years."

Rannals said having been married for 31 years, she's never qualified. When asked if she would do it were she single her reply was, "I've walked it many times. I've explained it. But I've never had any desire to do it myself."

Wilderness Woman contest,

Bachelor Auction and Bachelor Ball

The Wilderness Woman contest will be held at noon on Dec. 4, at the Talkeetna Village park. The Bachelor Auction begins at 7 p.m. at the Myron "Ace" Ebling Memorial VFW Post #3836 on Veteran's Way, with the Bachelor's Ball to follow at the Sheldon Community Arts Hangar, located behind the West Rib Pub. The auction may be attended only by women, but the ball is open to everyone. The Denali Cooks will be playing music at the ball, beginning at 10 p.m.

For more information, contact DX Russell at 733-3939.

Bachelors still wanted!

The Talkeetna Bachelor's Society is still looking for single men to participate in the annual Bachelor Auction on Dec. 4. The next meeting of the society is scheduled for Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. at the Myron "Ace" Ebling Memorial VFW Post #3836 in Talkeetna. The meeting will be the final call for individual photos and a group photo, to be featured in a Male Order Catalog, available for $10 at various Talkeetna businesses.

For more information, contact DX Russell at 733-3939.